More spelling & grammar errors these days?

[Termite]

Technical English writing is for worthless English teachers and professors, in the real world it doesn't really matter for shit when people understand your content and writing.

Except that even more than spelling, grammar and sentence structure matter in technical writing; because if written poorly, people MAY NOT understand the content/intent. I give you the "Chinglish" assembly manuals for Chinese made products as an everyday example.

Also, written engineering & operating procedures for industrial applications.
IT MATTERS; because doing things out of sequence due to poorly written operating procedures can have costly consequences in industrial settings.

[PawPaw]

I am told that English or Lit. teachers no longer make students take turns reading portions of a story to the classroom; something about hurting feelings or some such blather.

Taking criticism is part-and-parcel of the writer's craft. It's also that part that very few people ever become comfortable accepting. If you want to feel emotional pain, lovingly craft a short story then take it to a good writers group. Read it lovingly to them, then sit and listen silently as they take it apart. Sentence by sentence, line by line. It's like being eviscerated with a spoon, until you get comfortable with the process. Punctuation, grammar, voice, spelling, format are all in play, as is point-of-view and process.

Even done gently, criticism is brutal until you learn to accept it as part of the process and learn from it. Your writing is either correct or incorrect, it is either right or wrong, it is either good or bad, or some combination of the above. Writers strive for pieces that are correct, good, and right. Even those pieces might have problems and it is the group's mission to point out problems.

As Tom Hanks so famously said "There's no crying in baseball." Well, there's no crying in writing, either.

[Windy Wilson]

I regard written words as keys that unlock concepts in the mind of the reader. Misspelled words are like keys that don't quite fit, but they'll work if you jiggle the lock a bit. This is very distracting as it disrupts the flow of the ideas.

My nephew's school has some program called "Brave Spelling", where apparently they encourage the pupils' best guesses. I don't know any of the particulars; my SiL does not brook any criticism of him, either express or implied, and I don't know if the teachers tell him what the correct spelling is or if he is supposed to magically know better when he goes into the 3rd grade or something. Without reading correct spelling it's pretty hard to recognize a misspelled word when you see it. We don't need to pay big bucks to teach people to spell like Charles Russell.

The one grammar/spelling error that seems to chap my hide the most is the apostrophe gratuitously inserted into ordinary plurals. The Office Manager at one place I worked did that, until I very gently explained (with citation to authority! ) that it was not necessary and was in most cases wrong. Sadly I have a beautiful pen and ink poster by Ivan Jesse Curtis that has memorialized that error. "All of My Hero's are Cowboys."

Edit to add:
I found it!

Eye halve a spelling chequer.
It came with my pea sea.
It plainly Marx four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Aye strike a key and type a word
And weight fore it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it -- I am shore your pleased too no
Its letter perfect in it’s weigh
My chequer tolled me sew .

[Windy Wilson]

Maybe we should have "Brave Musicology", where there are two flats in the Key of C -- until the pupil enters the Fourth Grade.

And Rod -- Diagramming sentences went out in the early 70's. I was able to get along because I read enough to have an ear for what was correct, but I could not tell you why to save my life.

[Windy Wilson]

Even done gently, criticism is brutal until you learn to accept it as part of the process and learn from it. Your writing is either correct or incorrect, it is either right or wrong, it is either good or bad, or some combination of the above. Writers strive for pieces that are correct, good, and right. Even those pieces might have problems and it is the group's mission to point out problems.

As Tom Hanks so famously said "There's no crying in baseball." Well, there's no crying in writing, either.

That reminds me of shooting! Some years ago someone on this board gave a link to "How to shoot the U.S. Army Rifle", from 1943 that was apparently given to every prospective infantryman in the U.S. Army. The heading on one page is "IN SIGHTING AND AIMING, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS 'ALMOST RIGHT'".

[Erik]

My written English is not up to the standard I'd like it to be...

Are you joking? You write better than most of the 'Muricans

No, I'm really not. I am particular about not only spelling and grammar but also what words to use and the structure of the language. Words have meaning, and in a written media how you write is how people see you. I want to present myself in a good light.

Back when I studied in the US I regularly passed as an American in real life, but whenever I wrote a paper for a class the professors always noticed I wasn't a native speaker. They never deducted points for it, but it's still something I kept working on, but never really got quite right. Even now I constantly notice mistakes I make when I reread what I've written a moments before. It bugs me, even if no one else mind or even notice it.

I'm even worse in my own language. It's to the point where I find it difficult to write a text message or even a short e-mail without proper spelling, grammar and wording.

[HTRN]

All I have to say is...

tehn yaerz aghu I kudnent spul "musheenest", now eye har one!

[Yogimus]

[strike]Anyone want to proofread this thread?[/strike]

Would anyone like to proofread this thread?

[JKosprey]

[strike]Anyone want to proofread this thread?[/strike]

Would anyone like to proofread this thread?

I get the idea there....However I think there's a bit of a distinction between "proper grammar" and "atrocious".

I've noted before that I work as a tutor for my college. Much of that is in the Writing Center. I am daily astounded by the lack of skill displayed. Most of the students are referred to us either by mandate, or because they realize they are failing. There is a common theme of an inability to spell or use grammar in the traditional sense.

More concerning though, is the inability to even make a point or be understood. I find myself explaining simple assignments and interpreting the meaning of obvious passages. The other day I was explaining the differences between nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. To a college student. This is the larger issue behind proofreading mistakes....it leads to an inability to use the written language at all.

[Yogimus]

I am daily astounded by the lack of skill displayed.

I am astounded daily by the lack of skill displayed.